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Glite Dictionary
to keep one's fingers crossed

to keep one's fingers crossed

20 3.5
To hope something will turn out well
  • idiom
  • Informal
translation icon : cruzar los dedos
  • As the results were being announced, everyone kept their fingers crossed for a positive outcome.
  • let's keep our fingers crossed
  • just keep your fingers crossed
  • So keep your fingers crossed

Examples

Synonyms

to wish
vsto keep one's fingers crossed
577 1.0

To express hope that something good will happen to someone

is used to hope events turn out the way you want
to wish well
vsto keep one's fingers crossed
54 2.7

To hope that someone will have good luck or success

is used to hope things turn out favorably rather than focusing on someone

Antonyms

to give up
∞ 1.2

To stop trying to do something or accept defeat

to despair
44 4.1

To lose all hope

How Hopeful

to pray
∞ 1.0
to keep one's fingers crossed
  • Informal
20 3.5

Surface Forms

keep one's fingers crossed infinitive
keeping one's fingers crossed present participle
keeps one's fingers crossed third person singular
kept one's fingers crossed past
kept one's fingers crossed past participle

Morphology

keep + one + finger + crossed

The phrase literally describes keeping one’s fingers in a crossed position, so the constituent meanings compose a clear physical action; however the intended meaning ‘to hope for good luck’ is a conventionalized pragmatic gesture rather than a direct semantic composition. Many languages use a similar finger-crossing gesture, which aids recognizability, but a B1 learner who only knows the word meanings and lacks cultural/pragmatic knowledge is unlikely to predict the idiomatic sense fully.

Etymology

Keep one's fingers crossed comes from a simple, old gesture: people cross one finger over another to make a small cross when they wish for something. One popular story says this tiny cross was thought to bring 'good luck', so to keep one's fingers crossed now means 'to hope' that things will go well.